On Chasing Truffles

Where to go or how to cook those stinky little gems

Truffled Pizzayou say? that has an ignominious ring to it, doesn't it? Sure enough this is not a truffle pizza, but rather a truffled pizza, prepped for your enjoyment with truffle oil by a culinary fluffer. And yet this is intriguing. The blend of flavors, the taleggio in particular, a product local enough to be considered local in Piedmont. It’s also creamy, and funky, and one of my favorite cheese. Is this something that must be tried, even with or rather especially with inferior truffles that need some extra lift but please loose the truffle oil.

This also opens up the wine pairing options available to us. This sounds like it would be wonderful with all the usual suspects but think about aged examples of rustic French country wines like Marcillac or Grolleau from the Loire, or some old Musar!

I agree with Greg about the truffle oil. The locals here in piemonte say that it is impossible to preserve the truffles for a more than a month or two in the oil, meaning that what you are getting is just cancerous chemical oil.

I just tried Ciau del Tornavento on Friday and being a vegetarian paid off because I got porcinis and truffles for every dish! Don't forget to mention their unbelievable wine cellar with more than 60,000 bottles of wine and a huge safe!

Bercau continues to be a favorite of mine too and the owner is a mushroom fanatic!

Although the previous poster misunderstood your meaning, it has been quite fashionable of late for chefs and food experts to malign truffle oil. For those of us who love to cook and love the taste of truffles but cannot afford their price, judicious use of the oil is an acceptable alternative. Restaurateurs who went overboard adding truffle oil to almost everything added to the problem. Once the oil is infused with the truffle essence it isn't necessary to preserve them in it and calling it "cancerous" is a little silly.

forgive me if I offended you but I am just relaying what the italians have told me here. Speaking of truffles though, I think I am going to take Greg up on the risotto tonight! Found 4 white truffles on Sunday. @Loratora come visit me here and I will find them together with you to eat them fresh!:)

Thank for all the info, I fell in love with truffle about 5 years ago so any restaurant I go to that has truffle, That's most likely the dish I'm ordering. I also didn't realized that truffle oil isn't all that great as far as preserving the truffle itself. I'd like to research that topic. Thanks Greg!

Good comments and recommendations, but wish you would also address use of truffles
in the Montalcino and Nobile di Montepulciano as I will be visiting there in November. Surely Brunellos also pair with truffles dishes.

Anna, rest assured that you didn't offend me. I wished only to represent some of us ordinary folk who don't have the luxury of being able to find white truffles on a given Sunday! And while I'm at it, please pity us here in the states for being deprived of ready access to fresh porcinis. I can only wonder what the purists have to say about using dried. As for your kind invitation - be forewarned! If I'm lucky enough to return to Italy before I'm too old to navigate, I'll certainly take you up on it.

Anna and GdP, I am aware of the truffle oil controversy, and it was my understanding that white truffle oil was the one that had to exclusively use the chemicals for the essence. I buy a certain black truffle oil that states:
"This late fall, early winter truffle is used in the making of this savory oil. A "tea method" is utilized which steeps the ripe truffles for extended periods of time in olive oil. The closely guarded, proprietary process yields our heady, complex Black Truffle oil. No extracts or chemicals are used in its production."

Am I being lied to? I like this oil, but I don't want to ingest chemicals that give a truffle taste.